World’s Stupidest, Most Wasteful Consumer Products

As if plastic banana guards, leaf blowers and mechanized egg crackers weren’t enough, the brilliant inventors of the world just keep on creating unbelievably stupid, wasteful products for the masses to enjoy. The Huffington Post is pretty great at sniffing them out – the Top 10 Most Useless Items of Crapola, the 9 Stupidest Products Of All Time (including the ‘Tiddy Bear’) and now, in honor of No Impact Week, the world’s most wasteful consumer products.

Here’s a preview:

Spinning Ice Cream Cone (pictured above)

In the mood for ice cream but too lazy to move your tongue to lick? We’re not kidding – there is actually a product that “solves” this “problem.”

The Noseaid

For 30 dollars, avoid a nosebleed mess by applying this clothespin to your child’s nose. Pinching things with our fingers is apparently out — or just using an actual clothespin and some cloth.

Because there’s simply not enough random, useless plastic crap in the world. We need it to keep on coming as fast as it can. How did humans ever get by without this stuff?

Check out the rest – including demonstration videos – at The Huffington Post.

Link [The Huffington Post]

Shocking Photos: Bird Bodies Full of Plastic

Lighters, bottle caps, plastic bags and milk jugs. Fishing net, fishing line, zip ties, remnants of food containers. All of this and more floats in a massive vortex of trash in the Pacific Ocean – and in the stomachs of the birds who search for food amid the debris.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is twice the size of Texas, and many of the particles of plastic contained within it are so small they can’t be scooped out of the water. But other pieces – colorful pieces that look like they might be food – get swallowed by albatross and other birds.

Photographer Chris Jordan traveled to the Midway Islands, near the center of the garbage patch, to photograph the bodies of albatross chicks that have been inadvertently killed when their confused parents fed them plastic. Jordan didn’t move a single piece of plastic – he photographed the carcasses exactly as he found them.

The photos are a disturbing reminder of just how much of an effect our throwaway society is having upon our fellow inhabitants of this planet. Head over to Planet Green to view the whole set of 30 photographs.

Link [Planet Green]

Great Pacific Garbage Patch Researchers Find Even More Plastic than Expected

Scientists with ‘Project Kaisei’, who spent three weeks gathering plastic debris from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, returned to the Bay Area this week with a rather horrifying sample of the trash that can be found floating in the ocean.

Chunks of styrofoam, cracked patio chairs, bleach bottles, tangled nets and old toys were among the junk they brought back – but the bigger concern is the amount of tiny, “confetti-like” pieces of broken plastic floating in the garbage patch 1,000 miles west of California.

From Mercury News:

“Marine debris is the new man-made epidemic. It’s that serious,” said Andrea Neal, principal investigator on the Kaisei, a 151-foot research ship on the trip.

Neal, a Santa Barbara researcher who has a doctorate in molecular genetics and biochemistry, said crews on the three-week voyage discovered tiny jellyfish eating bits of the plastic debris. The jellyfish are, in turn, eaten by fish like salmon or tuna, which people eat.

Because the plastic pieces contain toxic chemicals — and are believed to be able to absorb now-banned chemicals such as DDT and PCBs, which can persist in the environment for decades — state toxicologists have taken hundreds of the objects, along with more than 300 fish, to an environmental chemistry lab in Berkeley to see if any chemicals are moving up the food chain.

“Every day, every night, we’d pull up samples and pour the water through a sieve. It would be completely clogged with tiny pieces of plastic,” said Margy Gassel, a research scientist with the California Environmental Protection Agency. “It was so disturbing.”

The garbage patch is estimated to be twice the size of Texas, and scientists believe that the trash comes from storm drains and rivers in places like Japan and the Bay Area. It accumulates in a slow-moving zone in the Pacific Ocean. Most of the plastic fragments that make it up are too small to be visible from the air or from satellites.

Doug Woodring, one of the founders of Project Kaisei, believes that two possible solutions to keeping the problem from getting worse could be biodegradable plastics and specially designed storm drains that filter plastic debris from ocean-bound streams of water.

Stopping its spread is essential, but scientists aren’t even sure how to begin cleaning up what’s already collected in the garbage patch. The use of fine nets would likely result in the accidental killing of marine life. Hopefully, now that scientists are taking a closer look at the problem, a solution will be found soon.

Link [Mercury News]

Swagtastic BlogHer Conference Disappoints Green Bloggers

Americans are addicted to free stuff. That’s a given. Wherever there is free swag handed out, there will be throngs of eager people mindlessly pushing each other and holding out their greedy little paws, regardless of whether they really even want the product itself. Sometimes, getting swag is a great chance to try out something new. But all too often, it ends up unused and thrown away.

At this year’s BlogHer conference in Chicago, some participants felt that not only was the swag totally out of control, with tons of cheap plastic junk unloaded on attendees, but it got in the way of what BlogHer is supposed to be about in the first place: community, camaraderie and empowerment.

A number of green bloggers, from Beth at Fake Plastic Fish to Diane at Big Green Purse, were really excited to attend the conference. It was a chance to meet their fellow bloggers in real life, build deeper connections, learn how to develop their blogging skills, share tips and have a lot of fun. Some had misgivings about the amount of waste that the conference would generate (there were 1400 attendees), but were pleased when BlogHer organizers asked them to participate in a ‘Green Team’ tasked with helping to make the conference as eco-friendly as possible.

And, BlogHer ’09 did have its green qualities as a result. Paperless conference guides, a recycling suite, carbon offsetting, water cisterns and free BPA-free reusable water bottles, and real dinnerware complete with cloth napkins were just a few of the commendable ways in which the conference sought to have a smaller impact on the earth.

Too bad all the swag and corporate sponsorship eclipsed these efforts. Green bloggers got to BlogHer only to find that ‘stuff’ had seemingly become more important than fostering connections between a diverse community of (mostly) female bloggers.

CV Harquail of Authentic Organizations noted some of the swag-related problems she saw at BlogHer:

• Efforts to acquire swag changed the participation patterns of many attendees. People went to exhibits instead of community keynotes to get the Walmart cookies or the Disney Ice Creams (which were, btw, very tasty).
• People went to and stayed at parties only until the swag bags were handed out.
• The minute it was announced that the swag was being distributed, the whole physical shape of the room would change, from clusters of women talking to a line of women waiting.
• The energy dynamic shifted from meeting & greeting other bloggers to getting & vetting the swag.

No kidding. One attendee, blogger Chef’s Widow, almost left just 6 hours into the conference because of the swag-crazed atmosphere.

I noticed a herd of women squeezing together so tight it looked like they were in an imaginary corral.  Jill and I were standing at the outskirts when we noticed the bags of swag on a table in front of corralled women.  It was hot and smelly.  Women were pushing and I immediately lost Jill in the madness.  I left the debauchery.  On my way out I ran into some chicks by the bar and we chatted about the insanity & greed of the women in front of us.  It was so odd.  All of these women were here for the conference however they were acting as though the $12 dildo in the swag bag would grant them eternal life.

Chef’s Widow was far from alone. Coming home from a conference where women practically bum-rushed each other to grab free crap, where corporate sponsors made them sit through 15-minute spiels before they could discuss what they went there to discuss, many environmental bloggers wrote about their disappointment.

From Lynn at Organic Mania:

The notion of feting women bloggers, of celebrating their achievements, and of giving gifts to women who may not treat themselves to much in life (especially the Moms) – was heartwarming. But with so many extravagant parties and suites, the evening scene at BlogHer turned into a combination of Halloween trick-or-treating and Mardi Gras. And with so many sponsored bloggers  interrupting others conversations to give a product pitch, heck, at times BlogHer seemed like a crazy reality TV show that was interrupted by sponsored programming!  Don’t get me wrong…a lot of it was fun. Who doesn’t like parties? But somewhere, somehow, things seemed to become a bit…excessive.

From Beth at Fake Plastic Fish:

As bloggers, we have incredible power! We have a voice that people listen to. We have a platform. And the fact that so many big companies are willing to sponsor an event like BlogHer and court bloggers at such an event proves it. So why are we willing to give up this tremendous power that we have — power to help create a better world — to sell out for a few trinkets?

Why aren’t we using the power that we have to demand BETTER products for ourselves and our children? Why do we accept the PR pitches at face value? Why aren’t we questioning every single promotion we receive and challenging the status quo?

From Diane at Big Green Purse:

As a member of the team BlogHer put together to help green the conference, I felt a bit cheated. The Green Team worked hard to collaborate with conference organizers and develop a list of items that would have low eco-impact but still satisfy attendees and conference sponsors alike.

But I can’t help but wonder if the environmental gains we secured through Green Team negotiations were neutralized by all the free bags of Fritos, throwaway plastic pouches of applesauce, and other disposables that were dispensed over the course of the event.

No one forced attendees to take the junk being handed out there. And BlogHer evidently had no control over independent parties held in private suites to attract select conference goers.

However, I do take issue with the argument that because BlogHer09 was not a “green” conference, the conference sponsors did not have to adhere to principles of sustainability in what they offered to attendees.

“Green” is not a niche. It’s not even a lifestyle choice. It’s a matter of survival. We need to start treating it that way, including at events like BlogHer09.

There’s no question that sponsors are necessary to make BlogHer affordable for both the organizers and the attendees. But it seems that perhaps they’ve taken it a bit too far, over-commercializing a function that is supposed to be about human connection.

As Harquail eloquently summarized on her blog, “Sponsorship, and thus swag, makes the conference run. But too much swag perverts the conference purpose.”

And it makes for an awful lot of trash.

Link [Authentic Organizations] + [Fake Plastic Fish] + [Big Green Purse]
Photo credit: Flickr user Average Jane

Pacific Garbage Patch Cleanup to Begin Next Month

How many times have you read something about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, that huge swirling mass of plastic trash that’s currently floating in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, and thought to yourself, “why hasn’t someone tried to clean it up?” Well, it’s just not that easy. It’s a huge, expensive task and extreme care must be taken to avoid harming wildlife in the process.

But, the good news is, an effort to retrieve and recycle the Texas-sized mass of junk will begin in earnest next month.

Charles Moore, an oceanographer who discovered the garbage patch in 1997, explains part of the challenge: the nearly microscopic size of much of the plastic rubbish makes it difficult to collect. However, that’s not stopping an expedition of scientists and conservationists from trying to collect the larger pieces.

From the Times Online:

Because of their tiny size and the scale of the problem, he believes that nothing can be solved at sea. “Trying to clean up the Pacific gyre would bankrupt any country and kill wildlife in the nets as it went.”

In June the 151ft brigantine Kaisei (Japanese for Planet Ocean) will unfurl its sails in San Francisco to try to prove Mr Moore wrong. Project Kaisei’s flagship will be joined by a decommissioned fishing trawler armed with specialised nets.

“The trick is collecting the plastic while minimising the catch of sea life. We can’t catch the tiny pieces. But the net benefit of getting the rest out is very likely to be better than leaving it in,” says Doug Woodring, the leader of the project.

With a crew of 30, the expedition, supported by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Brita, the water company, will use unmanned aircraft and robotic surface explorers to map the extent and depth of the plastic continent while collecting 40 tonnes of the refuse for trial recycling.

There’s simply no quick and easy fix for this tremendous problem, but Project Kaisei is a great start. Perhaps the next step should be putting a stop to the practices that caused this patch to accumulate in the first place.

Link [Times Online]

One-Third of Sea Turtles Have Plastic in their Digestive Systems

You’ve probably already seen this photo of a turtle chewing on a plastic bag – it’s included in just about every article on the ‘net about plastic pollution. It’s a heartbreaking reminder of how ubiquitous plastic is in our oceans, and how many sea creatures are being affected by its presence. The plastic bag industry has fought back against what they deem misinformation, even going so far as to claim that this photo is ‘trick photography’.

But now, scientists have proven that sea turtles are indeed ingesting plastic. Necropsy reports on leatherback turtles found that 1/3rd of them had plastic in their digestive systems.

From MSNBC:

Besides plastic bags, the turtles had swallowed fishing lines, balloon fragments, spoons, candy wrappers and more.

Plastic was probably not the cause of death in most cases. Nevertheless, the study is an important wake-up call for a growing garbage problem.

“Eating something that is plastic can’t be good for you, whether it leads to death or not,” said Mike James, a marine biologist at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. “It’s not what they should be eating. And it’s kind of scary that it is showing up in their diet to the extent that it is.”

But the numbers are alarming. Plastic can block a turtle’s gut, causing bloating, interfering with digestion, and leading to a slow, painful death. “I can’t imagine it’s very comfortable,” he said. “Their guts weren’t designed to digest plastic.”

The problem is, floating plastic bags look an awful lot like jellyfish, which are these turtles’ main source of sustenance – and there are so many plastic bags in the ocean. Since leatherback turtles travel so far and wide, they have more opportunity to come across them.

The only thing we can do is reduce our use of plastic as much as possible. If you want some tips for cutting back on plastic, check out EarthFirst’s “Resolve to Use Less Plastic in 2009 – Here’s How”.

Link [MSNBC]

This Valentine’s Day, Plastic is Forever

Diamonds may be forever but this Valentine’s Day, remember that plastic is too.

A plastic fork takes over a 1000 years to decompose – yet we only use it once. So much unnecessary waste is created across the country when we order take out. We know that America produces 25 percent of the worlds garbage but how much of that is unnecessary food packaging?

A program called Eco-To-Go has now launched at participating restaurants in New York City so that when you order takeout, you can advise the restaurant that you want your order to be Eco-To-Go.

Restaurants will respond by delivering the food, with no extras, such as unnecessary napkins and plastic utensils, as you have all you need at home. The program also hopes to encourage restaurants to use greener packaging.

Is Bottled Water Really So Bad?

I can’t tell you how many self-described environmentalists I know that have refrigerators full of bottled water. Not just gallon jugs, either, but giant Costco-sized packs of individual bottles. Now, we’ve all got our eco-sins – nobody’s perfect. And many of these bottled water-loving greenies assert that there are far worse habits they could have. Maybe that’s true, but bottled water and other beverages sold in individual plastic bottles certainly aren’t harmless.

Treehugger’s ‘Ask Pablo’ tackles the question, ‘Is bottled water really so bad?’

Surely there are bigger culprits out there. The problem for bottled water is that it is so ubiquitous and generally an unnecessary luxury. With most of the Western world having access to clean municipal water supplies, and even additional filtration, there is little reason to grab a pre-packaged dose of hydration, except for the sake of convenience, portability, or emergency preparedness. But successful marketing campaigns have created an image of purity, wealth, and health around bottled water and it is this situation that has triggered the bottled water backlash.

While everyone is bashing bottled water the rest of the bottled beverage industry has remained relatively untouched. This is despite the fact that all other bottled beverages contain a higher level of embodied environmental impact because they have ingredients in addition to water and their packaging is oftentimes heavier, translating into higher shipping emissions. Most of these ingredients are agricultural products: corn sweeteners for sodas, grapes for wine, grains for beer, etc. and their supply chain involves petrochemical fertilizers, diesel trucks, and processing factories. So all of a sudden bottled water doesn’t seem quite as bad, or at least this is how the bottled water industry sees it. Their argument is often that they are shifting market share away from high-calorie soft drinks to a much healthier alternative. Unfortunately this still ignores the fact that consumers can get healthy (and much cheaper) water from their tap as well as portability and convenience from Bisphenol-A free, reusable, and durable, stainless steel containers.

Pablo offers several suggestions for those who like soft drinks or carbonated water – check them out over at Treehugger.

Getting a faucet-mounted water filter is such a good investment and will go a long way toward reducing the amount of waste you produce – especially now that Brita is taking back old filters. Plus, with all of the great reusable containers out there, there’s really no reason to continue adding to the ridiculously large pile of empty plastic bottles that piles up around the world every day.

Link [Treehugger]
Photo credit: istock

Coca-Cola Opens Bottle-to-Bottle Recycling Center

The problem of plastic bottles isn’t going away. It doesn’t seem likely that people are going to give up bottled water and soft drinks any time soon, and according to some estimates, a whopping 75% of those bottles end up in landfills. The remainder gets downcycled into park benches and other plastic-based items instead of being turned into new plastic bottles – not exactly a sustainable model.

You might be surprised that one of the sources of all those plastic bottles, The Coca-Cola Co., is leading the effort to change that with a new $60 million bottle-to-bottle recycling plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina. It’s a joint venture with United Resource Recovery Corp, which bills itself the world’s leader in transforming waste bottles to new ones and has a patented process for recycling food and beverage containers made of PET plastic.

GreenBiz.com spoke to Coca-Cola’s director of sustainable packaging, Scott Vitters, for more details.

The best thing about the plant is that it is intended to make money for Coke and URRC. That means that the project can be duplicated elsewhere.

Here’s how it will work, as explained by Scott: A separate recycling company, led by Coca-Cola Enteprises, the world’s biggest Coke bottler (don’t ask me to explain the interconnected Coke system), will recover PET from a geographic area stretching from the northeast to Florida. The used PET bottles will come from its own manufacturing system, from government recycling centers and from high-profile venues like NASCAR events, college football stadiums and the House of Representatives. As the “official recycler” at the Democratic national convention in Denver, Coca Cola Recycling even collected waste from the arena known as the Pepsi Center. “All that material went back into our bottles—gleefully,” Scott says.

Another source for feedstock is a Coke-backed startup called RecycleBank, which rewards consumers who recycle more and throw away less. VC firm Kleiner Perkins is also an investor in Recycle Bank.

Scott says the driver for the program was environmental – they’re still not sure when the program will pay off due to a combination of factors, not the least of which is the falling value of virgin PET. Emphasizing that it won’t make anyone wildly wealthy, Scott says the company does expect to turn a profit, long term. And as GreenBiz points out, that’s good news because if the Spartanburg plant makes money, more will be built.

It’s a step in the right direction, though it would be far more impressive if the plant were powered with renewable energy. Corporations need to begin taking responsibility for the entire life cycle of the products they create.

Link [GreenBiz.com]
Photo credit: ‘Green Coca Cola Bottles’ by Andy Warhol, via Marc Wathieu

Resolve to Use Less Plastic in 2009 – Here’s How

Could you live a life without plastic? Many have tried, and few have succeeded. Cutting plastic out of your life, as I’ve learned myself, is a nearly impossible task in the modern world. It’s everywhere. We previously examined all of the ways in which plastics are harmful to the environment and human health, and the reasons why people would want to cut back on their use of the material. Now, as 2009 begins in earnest, we want to help you all find ways to at least reduce the amount of plastic you consume, even if you can’t go without it entirely.

For those just beginning to sort out how much plastic they use and purchase on a daily basis, the process can be a bit overwhelming. Just ask Trine Tsouderos, a Chicago Tribune reporter who recently set out to break her family’s addiction to plastic for a single week. She found plastic at every turn, from the grocery store to Target, and especially among her children’s possessions. Sippy cups, pacifiers, clothes hangers, shampoo bottles, bags protecting loaves of bread – there seemed to be no escaping it.

Tsouderos dropped by Whole Foods to purchase some things she thought she’d need to avoid plastic for a week: stainless steel water bottles, an all-rubber pacifier, paper diapers, biodegradable dog poop bags, solid shampoo bars from LUSH and soap instead of baby wash. These things helped, but she found she needed to do much more, and it involved changing the way she thought about shopping.

Tsouderos began shopping at a local farmer’s market instead of going to the grocery store, where practically everything has plastic on at least one part of it. She found that even the supposedly green goods at Whole Foods had plastic packaging. She was also disappointed to see that the paper diapers leaked and that buying bread and bagels in paper bags meant driving all over town.

While Tsouderos’ experiment taught her that avoiding plastic altogether is entirely impractical, she also realized afterward that she was being more conscious about cutting back. She kept using the items she had purchased to help her avoid plastic whenever possible. And, that may be the key for all of us – making those key decisions that help us be more aware of how much plastic we use and where we can cut back.

Food is one area where we can all avoid a large amount of plastic by shopping at farmer’s markets, health food stores and butchers. You can put fresh produce directly into reusable bags, get your meat wrapped in paper and get staples like dried beans, nuts, pasta, spices, rice and other grains in the bulk section of your health food store (bring paper bags or your own containers). You’ll find that avoiding plastic at the grocery store can actually help your family become more healthy as it forces you to stick to mostly whole, unprocessed, healthy foods.

Buying items used is another great way that you can save money and reduce your plastic consumption at the same time. Need a camera? Check the pawn shop or consignment store. The same goes for plenty of other random household items. Rarely will secondhand stores sell items with any kind of plastic on them, though clothing does occasionally have those annoying plastic tag hooks.

In terms of specific tips, two places I regularly turn to are Fake Plastic Fish and PlasticLess.com.  Beth Terry from Fake Plastic Fish has been working to cut plastic out of her life since June of 2007, and she gives weekly tallies of her progress as well as details on how she’s accomplishing her goals. Here’s her list of 38 ways in which she has found she can avoid plastic, and there are many more ideas in the comments. Prescription bottles, toothpaste tubes, eyedrop bottles, caps from various glass containers and public transit tickets (which are inexplicably plastic instead of paper in the Bay Area) are among the items she found she simply couldn’t avoid.

PlasticLess.com is also jam-packed full of tips that you’d never think of on your own. It recounts the author’s successes in replacing plastic items in his life, from using an old-fashioned mortar and pestle to grind food to finding glass jars of shaving cream. It also bemoans pointless plastic crap like plastic fruit (really, why does it exist?) and those plastic testicles that some people hang on the rear bumper of their trucks. Recent tips include going barefoot when you can, renting movies online to avoid the DVD cases, using metal buckets for household chores and, somewhat comically, getting a vasectomy (since children are the ultimate target market for useless plastic junk).

Having kids doesn’t mean you have to resign yourself to a life of plastic crap, though. Marketers will try to convince you that you need all manner of gadgets and widgets in primary colors, but the fact is, mostly plastic-free care of your kids is doable and healthy. A concept called ‘Natural Family Living’ emphasizes toys made of wood and cloth, organic clothing and linens made of natural materials (all of which can be purchased secondhand to cut back on costs), and generally parenting without all the ‘stuff’ marketed to families. For more on natural family living, check out Mothering Magazine and the Nature Moms blog.

Though many people turn to ‘replacement disposables’ that are purportedly less harmful to the environment like biodegradable paper, cornstarch and sugarcane, the best line of action is to cut out such one-use items altogether. A cloth napkin, a set of reusable utensils and a reusable beverage container won’t take up that much room in your bag and they’ll save countless disposables from heading to a landfill (where, by the way, even biodegradable items often can’t break down due to a lack of oxygen).

Using less plastic on a daily basis isn’t easy. It’ll involve some sacrifice and creative thinking – but just imagine how good you’ll feel when you find that the amount of trash you’re putting by the curb each week is far smaller than usual. It’s truly worth it, for so many reasons!

Link [Chicago Tribune] + [PlasticLess] + [Fake Plastic Fish]

Go Battery-Free with a Wind-Up Remote Control

How many remote controls are sitting on your coffee table right now? Those remotes aren’t just plastic pieces of junk, they also use up batteries. But, there’s no sense in getting up every time you want to change the channel, adjust the volume or pause the DVD you’re watching, so getting rid of them isn’t really an option – or is it? A new wind-up remote powers up to 6 gadgets at a time.

Just turn the dial on the front of the remote to charge it – thirty turns will keep it running for a full seven days. Mindlessly turn it while watching your favorite shows and you’re golden. It’s £19.53 (about $28.50) at Ethical Superstore.

If only it weren’t made of plastic, it would be awesome.

Link [Alternative Consumer] + [Ethical Superstore]

Scientists Calling for Urgent Study of Phthalates

The National Research Council is calling upon the EPA to study the cumulative effects of exposure to phthalates, a class of hormone-mimicking chemicals found in items like cosmetics, toys, air fresheners, plastic containers and other household products.

Humans are being exposed to hormone-disrupting chemicals at a far greater rate than ever before, and we don’t yet know what the long-term effects might be. Research has already shown that phthalates can affect the reproductive organs of young boys, causing smaller penis size. It’s been theorized that such exposure could lead to fertility problems later in life.

A new law will ban several types of phthalates from children’s products starting in February, and the EPA will soon require cosmetics manufacturers to report whether their products contain phthalates, but you still won’t be able to tell by reading the ingredients – and phthalates are in plenty of other products.

From the NRC report, via The Daily Green:

Recent animal studies have increased understanding of the potential risks from phthalates, although few human studies on the health effects of phthalates are available … To decide whether a cumulative risk assessment is warranted, two factors needed to be determined: whether humans are exposed to multiple phthalates at any given time, and whether sufficient evidence exists linking exposures to similar adverse health effects. The committee established that recent studies have shown widespread human exposure to multiple phthalates, including in utero exposure.

Then, the committee reviewed animal research and found that exposure to various phthalates in lab animals produced similar health outcomes, including a range of effects on the development of the male reproductive system. The most notable effects in male rats are infertility, undescended testes, malformation of the penis, and other reproductive tract malformations. However, the severity of effects differs among phthalates; some exhibit less severe or no effects. Furthermore, the age of the animals at the time of exposure is critical to the severity of the effects. For example, the fetus is most sensitive. Given that multiple human exposures to phthalates occur and that research shows exposure to different phthalates leads to similar outcomes in lab animals, a cumulative risk assessment is called for, the committee said.

The animal studies reviewed by the committee also indicated that some phthalates reduce testosterone concentrations. Depending on when this drop occurs, it can cause a variety of effects in animals that are critical for male reproductive development. Other chemicals known as antiandrogens, which prevent or inhibit male hormones from working, can produce similar effects in lab animals. The committee recommended that phthalates and other chemicals that affect male reproductive development in animals, including antiandrogens, be considered in the cumulative risk assessment. A focus solely on phthalates to the exclusion of other chemicals would be artificial and could seriously underestimate risk, the committee emphasized.

Currently when conducting cumulative risk assessments, EPA often considers only chemicals that are structurally related, on the assumption that they have the same chain of reactions that lead to a final health outcome. That practice ignores how exposures to different chemicals may result in the same health effects. The conceptual approach taken for phthalates — to consider chemicals that cause similar health effects — should also be applied when completing any cumulative risk assessment, the committee said. For instance, EPA could evaluate the risk of combined exposures to lead, methylmercury, and polychlorinated biphenyls because all contribute to cognitive deficits consistent with IQ reduction in children.

It’s about time phthalates were given in-depth study. When you think about it, as consumers we really don’t have any idea what is in most of the products we buy. Manufacturers can get away with putting all kinds of chemicals in their products because the chemicals haven’t proven to be dangerous. But if no one has ever checked to see whether they’re dangerous, we could go on using them unaware for years. Scary.

Link [The Daily Green]
Photo credit: Flickr user Gaetan Lee

Which Plastics are Safe?

Which plastics are safe? Which should be avoided? In this video, Grist advice guru Umbra Fisk broadcasts her quick tips about Bisphenol A, BPA and vinyl. For more information on toxic plastics and other dangerous substances, visit Environmental Working Group’s BodyBurden review of consumer products.

Nokia Cell Phone Made of Sustainably Harvested Wood

If there’s one thing I hate about modern gadgets, it’s all the plastic.  I’ve long looked back at wooden electronics wishing you could still find up-to-date versions of the sophisticated designs.  Plus, there’s the fact that so many plastic gadgets contain toxic materials, and all that plastic ends up getting thrown away.  Well, Nokia might just give me the cell phone of my dreams, if this new prototype made of sustainable timber ends up going into production mode.

From Cell Phone Beat:

Mobile phones with metallic bodies, which in the designer mode are even seen studded with diamonds and crystals, will have an environment-friendly competitor, if the eco-friendly wooden Nokia concept is realized sometime in the distant future. The natural soulful look of the phone, fitted with advanced technical features, will make it the most sought after device by environmentally-conscious, cell phone users, looking for a phone that does not contaminate the environment with its toxic elements.

The eco-friendly wooden Nokia concept phone features an 8-megapixel camera, Bluetooth, speaker and Symbian S60 Operating System.  The perfect combination of old-school looks and modern functionality.  Sweet!  I wonder if I could bribe Nokia to send me a prototype even if this design doesn’t go on the market…

Link [Cell Phone Beat]

How to Fix NY’s ‘Bigger Better Bottle Bill’

Groovy Green has reposted a great article by Daniel T. Weaver of the Daily Gazette about how to make New York state’s bottle deposit program work for everyone – states, environmentalists and soft drink companies. New York currently has a 5 cent deposit on all soft drinks, and unclaimed deposits are kept by the soft drink companies. Many New Yorkers support a ‘bigger, better bottle bill’ that would include bottled water, sports drinks, tea and other beverages, but the bill has failed consistently over the last several years.

Dan’s suggestion? Raise the deposit fee to 25 cents. Oh yeah, and to the environmentalists of the state: stop trying to grab the unclaimed profits for yourselves.

From Groovy Green:

The proposed legislation goes too far in some areas and not far enough in others. Let me explain. First, the bill does not include the large plastic beverage cups that people get from fast food restaurants and convenient markets. I find these along my road all of the time. Secondly, the bill does not increase the amount of the deposit on returnable bottles and cans. The amount has been a nickel for twenty-five years. Most people won’t bend over to pick a nickel off the ground, and the nickel’s lack of value accounts for the many cans and bottles that are thrown out of car windows, left on beaches, etc.

The legislation requires that all unredeemed deposits be turned over to the State Environmental Protection Fund. Currently the beverage industry keeps the money, which totals more than 100 million dollars each year.

Dan points out that at 25 cents per bottle, there would be very few unclaimed bottles. That means far less bottles littering the roads, beaches and other areas of New York. The state currently only has a 70.2% return rate on bottles. So the income from unclaimed bottles would be far less for beverage companies, but as Dan suggests, compromising with them might help the legislation get through.

We like this idea for a lot of reasons, and think it should go nationwide. Charge people extra for beverages that come in a bottle or a can, and they’ll think twice about throwing it in the trash. More will be recycled and homeless people will be able to earn more. The caveat? People might buy far fewer canned and bottled beverages in the first place, which is probably exactly what soft drink companies are afraid of. Thus, the lobbying that prevents the bill from being passed. But still, good call Dan – and thanks Groovy Green for picking this up!

Link [Groovy Green] + [The Daily Gazette]
Photo credit: Flickr user judepics

Plastic Going Up in Price

We’ve gotten accustomed to plastic being cheap. So accustomed, that we’re now hopelessly addicted to it – we’d be hard-pressed to live without it at this point. But, all things come to an end, and the age of cheap plastic may be going out with the age of cheap oil. Of course, that’s because plastic is made from petroleum, which has gotten very expensive as of late.

From Green Car Congress:

Mitsubishi Chemical Corp., Mitsui Chemicals Inc. and Sumitomo Chemical Co. have raised the price of polyethylene, the most common synthetic resin, by 17% to levels not seen for the past 25 years. The price hike is blamed on soaring prices of naptha, a key raw material refined from crude oil.

Domestic synthetic resin prices are now at their highest level since 1983, when the market was dealing from the fallout of the second oil shock.

Meanwhile, the price of polypropylene, which is used in candy packaging and clothing storage products, was lifted around 37-40 yen per kilogram, or 18%. And polystyrene prices were raised 7-9%, or 15-20 yen per kilogram. The plastic is used in food containers.

Okay, so – plastic is polluting, has negative effects on the health of humans and animals, is made from oil – and now it’s expensive? Sounds like as good a time as any to start trying to wean ourselves off of it as much as possible. We may never stop using plastic entirely, but we can cut back our personal consumption of products packaged in plastic as much as possible.

Link [Green Car Congress]
Photo credit: Flickr user Meg and Rahul

The Impossible Task of Cutting Plastic Out of Your Life

Image via Algalita Marine Research Foundation

Plastic is a cancer on the environment and yet we just can’t get enough of it. Just try to get through one day without plastic – it’s impossible. Your shampoo is in a plastic bottle. Your car has plastic all over the interior. Open your fridge door – plastic. Turn on a light – plastic. Brush your teeth, have safe sex, wear a Hawaiian shirt – plastic, plastic and more plastic.

Though I was always aware of plastic being problematic for the environment, I never considered trying to dramatically reduce my use of it until I had a wake-up call a few months back. After discovering that I had several health problems related to high levels of estrogen, a female hormone, I started doing some research and learned about the connection between hormones like estrogen and compounds found in plastic, such as Bisphenol A (BPA). Tests have shown BPA to be an endocrine disrupter, and it’s linked to health issues like breast cancer, prostate cancer, infertility, early onset of puberty and insulin resistance. BPA is found in plastic water bottles, reusable food containers, baby bottles and canned food liners, among many other items.

That led me to examine how much plastic I’ve really been using on a daily basis. Once you start thinking about how much plastic is in your life, it can be overwhelming. It’s everywhere, and health effects are far from the only dangers of the petroleum-based material. From the raw materials used to create it to where it ends up when we no longer want it, plastic has an incredibly large, negative footprint on the earth. Cradle to Cradle it’s not.

Plastic begins its life as petroleum, which is drilled and transported to refineries. Then the crude oil and natural gas is refined into ethane, propane and thousands of other petrochemical products. Ethane and propane are “cracked” into ethylene and propylene using high-temperature furnaces, and then a catalyst is combined with them in a reactor, resulting in what’s called ‘fluff’ – powdered polymers. The fluff is combined with additives in a blender, fed into an extruder where it’s melted, allowed to cool and then fed to a pelletizer that cuts it into small pellets. The pellets are shipped to manufacturers who then process it into various products (Source: ReachOutMichigan.org).

As you can see, the production of plastic is yet another way in which we’re dependent on foreign oil, and oil drilling is hard on the environment. Plastic also clogs our landfills. It can take 200 to 400 years to degrade, and only 3% of plastic waste is currently recycled, partially due to the fact that facilities to recycle most types of plastic simply don’t exist in most cities (Source: Learner.org). Consumers have little choice but to throw their plastic waste in the trash.

Ocean Gyres: The Pacific Gyre is top center. Image via Wikimedia Commons

As if that weren’t bad enough, then there’s the plastic that ends up in our oceans. The swirling vortex of plastic trash in the Pacific Ocean, known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, is a prime example of how our love affair with plastic is damaging the environment. The trash gyre takes up an astonishingly large area of the Pacific Ocean – twice the surface area of the continental United States. It’s essentially the world’s largest garbage dump, and it’s held in place by swirling underwater currents. It stretches from about 500 nautical miles off the coast of California, across the northern Pacific nearly as far as Japan. Researchers have called it ‘plastic soup’, and includes everything from footballs and kayaks to children’s toys and shopping bags.

Plastic is believed to account for 90% of the trash in oceans, and it’s been known to kill marine life. The UN Environment Program estimates that plastic debris causes the death of more than 1 million seabirds each year, along with 100,000 marine mammals. Entanglement or ingestion of plastics have been known to cause death or suffering to at least 267 different species including turtles, seabirds, seals, sea lions, whales and fish.

Motivated by all of this knowledge, I set out to reduce the amount of plastic that I used in my daily life as much as possible. It didn’t take long to discover that cutting plastic out of your life in this day and age is virtually impossible. You’d have to totally change practically every facet of your life in order to avoid it. I began my quest to reduce my plastic use mainly concerned with plastics that come into contact with my food and drinks, as well as the products I apply directly to my skin, like lotion. It wasn’t too hard to replace my food containers and cups with all glass and ceramic, but then I started thinking about all of the plastic that surrounds me every day and how hard it would be to totally avoid it.

One thing I realized early on is that attempting to avoid plastic can either be really cheap or really expensive. If you go the cheap route, you’re bound to be living a pretty primitive existence, because finding alternatives to plastic for everyday items isn’t always possible. If you try to replace everything you own that’s made with plastic, you’re going to get frustrated fast because often, alternatives just aren’t out there.

You can get wooden or cloth kids toys instead of plastic, replace your toothbrush with a wooden one, buy staples in bulk (and use glass containers to house the items), only wear natural fabrics and replace cheap fixtures around your house with vintage glass or ceramic. But, you’ll have to forgo sunglasses, electronics and those little plastic pumps on your liquid hand soap. Forget medical or dental work – plastic abounds. Want to paint your house? The paint cans are plastic. Switching to tap water instead of bottled? You’ll have to drink it straight from the faucet, because filters are encased in plastic. Better switch to an entirely whole foods diet, because one stroll through the grocery store will show you that most items are encased in plastic bottles, bags, wrap or mesh.

Christine Jeavans with some of her plastic purchases – Image via BBC News

One woman in the UK is attempting to go without plastic for the entire month of August, and will be documenting her journey on the BBC News website. Christine Jeavans has resolved not to purchase anything that contains plastic or is packaged in plastic, and in preparation for this, she has kept all of the plastic she used in the previous month – totaling 603 items. Included in that total were 67 food packaging bags and films, 13 yogurt cups, 10 milk bottles and 120 disposable diapers. Once faced with all of this plastic, Chris was more resolved than ever to change her lifestyle. She’ll be updating her blog with her progress throughout the month.

I’m still sorting through my own attempts to reduce the amount of plastic I use, with mixed results – but hoping to do better going forward. While I can’t yet replace all of the plastic items in my home with longer-lasting, safer alternatives, I will definitely be far more conscious of what I purchase in the future. I’m already avoiding food with unnecessary packaging and thinking about where each item I purchase will end up when I’m done with it.

Luckily, the world at large is beginning to wake up from our decades-long plastic nightmare. Many new companies are offering plant-based packaging that breaks down when composted. Biodegradable packaging can be seen on everything from take-out containers to personal care products, and biodegradable options are available for items like trash bags and packaging tape.

There’s no doubt that plastic has revolutionized the way we live, and greatly sped up the advancement of modern civilization. But, times are once again a-changin’ – and we’ve got to find a better way. We’re a long way away from completely cutting plastic out of our lives – and it may never happen. But with the green revolution fueling sustainable technology like never before, we’re sure to see more ways that we can cut back.

Perhaps more companies will soon discover the merits of the Cradle to Cradle design philosophy, and we’ll soon have a wealth of materials that are even better than plastic that don’t harm the earth. And perhaps we can all be a little more conscious about the life cycle of every item we purchase – especially plastic – for our health and for the earth.

Many Face Scrubs Contain Tiny Water-Polluting Beads of Plastic

Just when you think you’ve heard it all in regards to dangerous, unhealthy, bad-for-the-environment ingredients in cosmetics and personal care products, here comes more bad news. If you use an exfoliating face scrub to keep your skin smooth and healthy-looking, you may want to check the ingredients. Many companies are using tiny particles of plastic to get that smooth effect, which in turn end up in our watershed and may be ingested by marine life.

From Yahoo! Green:

One Australian researcher found that plastic fragments smaller than 1 millimeter are increasingly common in our oceans. In one British estuary, 85 percent of the plastic garbage was this “microplastic” debris. Sewage treatment systems can’t filter it out, so this tiny plastic junk pollutes the watershed and can be ingested by marine life.

Those little beads may feel nice on your skin, but in the long run, they’re not doing the planet any good. Besides, you can find plenty of cleansers that use natural stuff to scrub the dirt off your face.

Some of the eco-friendly brands have been around for ages, they don’t cost any more than the plasticized versions, yet they won’t clog up poor little fishy bodies when we’re done with them.

The brands using plastic beads include Aveeno, Clean & Clear, Dove, Neutrogena, Noxzema, Olay and Phisoderm (see Yahoo! Green for the full list, and a list of safe alternatives). While you could continue purchasing pre-made scrubs that are more natural and don’t contain plastic (Christ on a bicycle, plastic? Really?), I’ve got a simple trick for you that I’ve been using for years. Keep a shaker of sugar, salt or baking soda in your bathroom. Add a little to your regular face wash when you need some exfoliating power. It seriously works better than any pre-packaged product I’ve ever tried, it’s ultra cheap, it saves packaging and you’ll know for sure exactly what’s in it.

Check out this Slate article, ‘Scrubbing Out Sea Life’, for more details on how harmful those little plastic beads can be.

Link [Yahoo! Green] + [Slate]

Activists Take Junk Journey Through ‘Plastic Soup’ in Pacific Ocean

When you picture the Pacific Ocean, you probably imagine cool breezes, deep blue waves cresting in cascades of white foam, dolphins surfacing playfully and birds flying overhead. Unfortunately, that cheery picture is becoming naught but a memory as the ocean is increasingly polluted by astonishing amounts of trash.

On a voyage with the Algalita Marine Research Foundation, sailors Markus Eriksen and Joel Paschal were sickened by what they saw in the Pacific: continent-sized patches of plastic litter. They discovered pollution to a shocking extent in the waters leading up to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a ‘swirling mass of plastic debris some estimate to be as large as the United States’. Tests done on the water show that plastic outnumbers plankton 48 to 1. On the surface, the water looks clean, but when you pull up a sample from beneath you get what Algalita’s education advisor Anna Cummins describes as ‘plastic soup’.

The Green Tech Blog has more:

Algalita researchers said the floating, soupy landfill isn’t well understood because satellites can’t spot the translucent particles. And although efforts by scientists to explore plastic in five gyres around the world have been lacking, interest is expanding as the public learns more.

“No one really knows what’s out in the other gyres,” Cummins said. “In the north Pacific alone there’s Capt. Moore with his research boat. We are a small organization with five or six paid staff members.”

Eighty percent of the plastic comes not from ships but from land, where tossed consumer goods eventually travel from beaches and rivers into the ocean, according to Algalita.

Plastic concentrates poisons such as PCBs at levels a million times higher than found in the water, according to Japanese researchers.

The amount of plastic produced in the United States has nearly doubled in the past two decades, according to the American Chemistry Council.

“Recycling isn’t the solution,” Cummins said. “We think there absolutely needs to be a reduction in the overall use and consumption of plastic.”

The activists are going on a journey sailing more than 1,000 miles from California to Hawaii to further explore the problem, traveling on a motorless craft made from recycled materials including 15,000 bottles, fishing nets and the cockpit of a Cessna. They’ll have GPS units, VHF radios, a Coast Guard beacon and three months’ worth of food and water. You can follow their journey on the blog JUNK.

Link [Green Tech Blog] + [JUNK]
Photo credit: Peter Bennett/Ambient Images Inc.

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